Best of OKC is Oklahoma Gazette’s opportunity to get truly type A on you, to extol the virtues of getting to the top of your game in Oklahoma City. When you reach No. 1 in your category of the 2018 Best of OKC issue, it means that a sizeable percentage of more than 1 million votes chose you above your closest competitors. That gives you, your organization, your restaurant or your place of business bragging rights all the way through next year. In this fair city, winning Best of OKC makes winning the Good Housekeeping seal of approval, getting an acrylic trophy from J.D. Power and Associates or earning a Best New Music rating on Pitchfork seem like extremely small, almost microscopic potatoes.

OK, so perhaps that was a little too type A, but for Gazette readers, Best of OKC is an invaluable fail-safe guide to the coolest things about living here. Most people have friends who can point them to the best places to eat, drink, shop or experience great performances, but with Best of OKC, you have hordes of readers giving you the best advice about the best things. Best of OKC is also the best issue to find the most uses of the word “best” and the best uses of the word “best.”

With this Best of OKC issue, Oklahoma Gazette has ventured into the realm of bests 34 times, and every issue gets more difficult because Oklahoma City just gets better, or “bestier.” We’re not complaining, though; we’ll take all these enormous strides toward excellence. Keep doing what we’re doing, and we’ll have to change the lyrics to the official state song to “You’re doing best, Oklahoma.”

Gorō Ramen

Best Japanese restaurant

The journey to opening Oklahoma City’s best Japanese restaurant, Gorō Ramen, began when chef and co-owner Jeff Chanchaleune became obsessed with instant ramen as a kid.

“I ate so many [types of instant ramen] growing up, and I wondered, ‘Why don’t we have a real ramen shop in Oklahoma City?’” Chanchaleune said.

He opened the food truck Kaiteki Ramen in 2014 to immediate success but yearned for a brick-and-mortar location. He partnered with 84 Hospitality restaurant group owner Rachel Cope — fresh off Empire Slice House — to create a series of ramen pop-up diners called Project Slurp.
After selling out pop-up diners and finding a 16th Street Plaza District location for Gorō, Chanchaleune wanted to finalize the menu the only way he knew how: tasting ramen from its source.

Chanchaleune and his wife Rachel traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto’s famed ramen street located in Kyoto Station. There, Chanchaleune settled on wanting to highlight the chicken-based tori paitan broth.

“The first sip kind of reminded me of my mom’s chicken noodle soup,” Chanchaleune said. “I thought that it was so rich and savory, I knew immediately that I wanted to do it because it was different from what everyone else was doing, which was a Tokyo-style shoyu ramen or rich, pork-based tonkotsu ramen.”

Instant ramen is antithetical to real ramen’s laborious effort to create a layered and rich broth. Creating the tori paitan is a 24-hour process. Three huge pots begin cooking in the morning. After eight hours, they are strained and the process is repeated throughout the day.

Gorō’s menu is limited to four types of ramen (two tori kaiten-based, one gluten-free and vegan and a chilled ramen perfect for the summer) and modeled after the Japanese tradition of small shops dedicated to one or two dishes.

“There is more focus on quality when you have a smaller menu,” Chanchaleune said.
Gorō Ramen also offers three types of nikuman, Japanese steam buns, and a variety of snacks including fried vegetables, chicken wings and chicken kara-age. The restaurant continues to turn out high-quality food to crowds of patrons.

“I didn’t expect any of this,” Chanchaleune said. “I just wanted to cook great food and have my own restaurant.